Dragon Shouts from Skyrim?

[citadel97501]

Hello all,

I have been playing the crap out of Skyrim for the last week, and I was just wondering how you would mimic the dragon shout abilities in DFRPG?

[Tedronai]

Incite Effect would do a reasonable job so long as you weren't too concerned with maintaining the arbitrary mechanical limitations of the source (ie. can't use that Flame Breath shout to set buildings on fire...because buildings can't BE set on fire).

[PirateJack]

Depends on whether you're using the lore or the game Shouts.

In the lore Dragonborn are basically demigods capable of putting down entire armies by themselves. Gamewise the Dragonborn isn't nearly that strong. If you take the upper bounds of what a Dragonborn is capable of in the lore and apply it to the Dresdenverse you're talking somewhere between the Ladies and the Queens for sheer destructive power, probably nearer to the Queens.

If you take the Dragonborn from the game with all available Shouts you're looking at top level Warden level combat abilities, capable of giving Senior Council Members a run for their money with the correct combination of Shouts and abilities. If the Dragonborn is a mage on top of that I'd give him a good chance of fighting Ebenezar on an even footing.

[Theogony_IX]

Maybe something like this?

There are a finite number of shouts in the game. You could go through the list and assign each an effect strength according to their strength in the game, or as you see fit given the effect.  Something like

Effect: Force Push
Fus - 2
Ro - 2
Dah - 2

For each word used in a shout the effect strength adds up, so for the above, all three words would be a weapon 6 force push, or a 6 shift maneuver.

Skills involved:
Discipline: Control the effect and aim just like the magic rules. Not sure exactly how to handle failure to control since it wasn't really a part of Skyrim.
Lore: Allows one complete phrase to be known for each point of Lore. Superb Lore grants 5 phrases immediately. Each word learned after that requires research and possibly quests depending on the effect.

Cooldown: Maybe an exchange for each word used, or possibly just assign a number of exchanges to each shout when you do the weapon ratings.

Rather than using the cool down, you could tie it to mental stress just like the normal magic rules.  If you do that, it would likely just be a reskinned evocation.  Maybe just have each shout act as an element and add new shouts with refinements.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head.  More experienced minds could really help you nail these down if you like the ideas.

[Taran]

Breath weapon could work but it seems a bit weak for Shouts

Evocation would give you the most variety of shouts.  You could take a limitation on it to only allow you to cast rotes.  Then you could add to your rotes based on the shouts you learn.  So you could start out with your Lore as a number of shouts.  When you discover a new shout, you add it as a new rote.  I'm not sure if that would require a refresh to get more rotes than your lore.  It seems like something that refinement could cover...so maybe 1 refresh for 2 extra rotes.

Take refinements to boost your shouts with specializations...having you put those specializations into specific rotes: Fu ro Dah  I don't remember items actually boosting the power of shouts (it's been a while since I played the game).  But those would be represented with foci. 

Mental stress will naturally tap you out which would represent a cool-down.

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Incite effect would work well, but that gives you unlimited uses. It lets you do 1 thing for each refresh. 
So one shout might be the block/maneuver trapping of incite effect
Damage would be a second
a different type of effect would be another

Each of these trappings are an add-on worth 1 refresh.

***
You could use enchanted item rules.  Where your shouts are based on your Lore.  Then take internalized foci.  Your cool down would be based on uses/session.